Between 2004 and 2006, the number of new cases of cancer diagnosed each year in Europe has increased by 300,000 according to new estimates published in a report in journal Annals of Oncology. It is estimated that in 2006 there were 3.2 million new cases of cancer (up from 2.9 million in 2004) and 1.7 million deaths from the disease in the whole of Europe.

Professor Peter Boyle, Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, who prepared the report with IARC colleagues, warned that despite better prevention and treatments, Europe faced a major increase in the cancer burden because of the aging population. He said urgent action was needed now to tackle cancer, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, through measures such as tobacco control and more widespread screening for breast and colorectal cancer, as well as efforts to improve people's diet and exercise and reduce levels of obesity.

"With an estimated 3.2 million new cases (53% occurring in men, 47% in women) and 1.7 million deaths (56% in men, 44% in women) each year, cancer remains an important public health problem in Europe, and the ageing of the European population will cause these numbers to continue to increase, even if age-specific rates of cancer remain constant," he said. "Evidence-based public health measures, such as screening, exist to reduce deaths from breast, cervical and colorectal cancer, while the incidence of lung cancer, and several other forms of cancer, could be diminished by tobacco control."

Since the previous estimates for 2004, breast cancer has overtaken lung cancer as the commonest cancer to be diagnosed overall, with 429,900 new cases in 2006 (13.5% of all cancer cases). It was followed by colorectal cancer (412,900 cases, 12.9%) and lung cancer (386,300 cases, 12.1%).

Boyle said the rise in the number of breast cancer cases could be attributed partially to the introduction of organized mammography screening programs, which meant that more cancers were detected, and at an earlier stage. "These programs have the short-term consequence of increasing the incidence, which has risen by 16% since our latest 2004 estimates." Despite the benefit of screening programs, he said that deaths from breast cancer were continuing to rise (130,000 in 2004, 131,900 in 2006) because of the aging population.

SOURCES:
Annals of Oncology, February 7, 2007
European Society for Medical Oncology (http://www.esmo.org)